Being rooted means that I am drinking things that bring me life. The roots of a tree will soak up the water and nutrients from its soil. It is knowing that Christ is the only living water. And it is knowing that I will become what I behold.

As we all know, these social media photos only tell part of the story, and the same is true for me. I never pointed out that I had tears streaming down my face in one of those photos with my daughter. I didn’t instagram the scolding and discipline that took place between shots of our family photos. I never told the story of how my adoration for my children was deeply clouded by my postpartum depression.

Why, my soul, are you cast down? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:5)

This is one of the verses that was on repeat in my mind during my freshman year of college. Reading this passage takes me back through a number of years and events, remembering feeling as if God put this in the Bible just for me. We have all had months, or years, where we could relate, haven’t we?

I would have never said it out loud and would have rebuked any one who said that adoption is the business of rescuing. I flew into China, fully aware of my inadequacies. Never once thinking that I was specially equipped for the task, I often wondered if I had “heard” God right in this call. It was a passion burning in my heart for certain, but I was terrified.